


Time and Space

by Annariel



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Warehouse 13
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-28
Updated: 2012-01-28
Packaged: 2017-10-30 06:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/328732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annariel/pseuds/Annariel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Eleventh Doctor meets Claudia Donovan</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time and Space

**Author's Note:**

  * For [makeyourmoment.livejournal.com](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=makeyourmoment.livejournal.com).



> Written for makeyourmoment's fandom stocking!

The interior of Flamsteed House had sunk into silence. Claudia wriggled uncomfortably in the the confines of the supply cupboard that she was using as a hiding place. When she'd picked the lock she hadn't anticipated quite how long she would have to wait inside. She checked her watch. It was now two hours past closing time but there was some sort of reception being held and the last of the party-goers were still leaving. She groaned and tried to find a position that didn't mean a broom handle would be poking into her back.

Then suddenly the door opened and there was a second body inside the cupboard with her. Claudia breathed in a slightly musty smell of moth balls and tweed. She was squashed even further into a corner. Whoever it was didn't seem to realise she was there, despite the fact they were pressed tightly together.

Claudia coughed quietly.

"Shh!" said a man's voice, firmly.

There was a small silence and then a very english accent said. "Is there someone in here with me?"

"No?" tried Claudia.

"No, no, no. There's definitely someone in here with me." The words came out as an urgent whisper.

She felt the body squirming round and suddenly hands were roaming over her body.

"Oi!" She thumped out.

"Argh! You're a girl!" The voice couldn't have sounded more horrified and the hands hastily vanished.

"Well duh!"

"Sorry." The voice sounded contrite.

There was an awkward silence.

"I think everyone has gone," said the voice slowly. "Shall we get out of here?"

They tumbled out of the cupboard and Claudia got her first glimpse of the stranger in the low lighting of the museum at night. He was tall and gangling with an unruly mop of hair falling into his eyes. He was wearing a tweed jacket which looked a size too small for him. She realised he was regarding her with equal interest.

"Well!" he said snapping to attention. "Are you here to steal the H4 because I really wouldn't recommend it."

An explanation flared in Claudia's mind. "Ha! You're the person who has the key!"

Then she deployed a couple of the self defence moves that Myka had taught her. She winced as he grunted in pain but he was bigger than she was and she didn't want to have to fight him for the clock. 

The supply cupboard had been tucked away beneath a staircase, behind a "staff only" sign. She didn't wait to see the effect of her blows but headed upwards. She needed to get to the gallery level before the man caught her.

"No! wait!" she heard him gasp. She took two steps at a time aware that he wouldn't be far behind. When she reached the room with the sea clocks, however, she skidded to an undignified halt in the doorway.

There was a hooded figure standing right over the case to the H4. Claudia hesisted, her instincts screaming that this was not a good person to tangle with. At that moment someone slammed into her and she found herself pressed against the wall next to the room.

"I don't have the key," whispered the man.

"That person in there does?" asked Claudia.

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"Err... well... she might have picked my pocket."

"Picked your pocket?" she whispered furiously.

He looked affronted. "It happens to the best of us. I'm the Doctor by the way, pleased to meet you. I assume you are here to stop the thief."

"Claudia Donovan, are you here to stop her as well?"

"You can help if you like?" 

Claudia made a face at the man's back as he peered around the door of the room.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Lady Hortensia Smythe-Brown, inter-galactic criminal, wanted in twelve galaxies for everything from genocide to jaywalking."

"Intergalactic, you're kidding me!" Claudia couldn't help grinning though.

"I'm deadly serious, now shh! I'm thinking." The man stared at her solemnly waving his fingers.

Claudia pulled out her tesla. "What's there to think about? She's on her own."

The Doctor frowned at her with distate. "I dislike guns. They have a nasty habit of killing people."

"It's a stun gun doofus. What do you take me for?"

He frowned as if considering that question. "A young woman hiding in the Royal Observatory intent on preventing the theft of the H4. You can't be with the authorities because otherwise you wouldn't be hiding but you aren't a high class thief either or you would be acting with more aplomb."

"Watch it you!" Claudia hissed at him.

"Really Doctor, you do get distracted so easily."

Claudia glanced past the Doctor's shoulders to see Lady Hortensia holding a small compact looking gun at the pair of them. She had thrown back the hood of the long cloak that enveloped her and Claudia could see a desperately pale face surrounded by long black hair and bright red lipstick.

The Doctor turned, clasping his hands behind him. Claudia could barely see over his shoulder but, on the upside, that meant the woman couldn't see the tesla.

The Doctor twisted his head round to glare at her. "See! Guns just cause trouble they really do."

Lady Hortensia chuckled and her red lips pursed. "Trouble for whom?"

The Doctor's hands were flapping desperately behind his back and Claudia suddenly realised he was expecting her to hand him the tesla. She rolled her eyes.

"You!" and she fired over the Doctor's shoulder. 

Lady Hortensia let off a shot as she collapsed to the ground and they both ducked.

"There was no need to do that!" said the Doctor indignantly. He rubbed anxiously at the bullet hole in the wooden panelling above his head.

"Why not? What were you going to do with the tesla?"

"Well... shoot her obviously but with more..." The Doctor's hands wriggled nervously, "finesse."

"It got the job done didn't it?"

Claudia glanced into the exhibition hall. 

"Looks like she's got the clock and the key."

"Reunited for the first time in a century," the Doctor breathed in excitement.

"Yeah, yeah!" Claudia pulled on her gloves. "I heard the lecture, the timepiece that won the longitude prize, sort of, uniquely binding together the concepts of space and time."

She began fishing through Hortensia's pockets.

"Well, I suppose you could say that. From a human point of view at least."

Claudia glanced up at him. "Hey! We're humans!"

"Well you are."

Claudia stopped rifling through the woman's pockets for a moment and then shook her head. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"Why?"

"Don't get me wrong. You being an alien is super-cool but also probably super-artefacty and you were some help, I suppose. Though if you were the person who let her get the key then it's probably your fault this whole `help someone has the key and is going to steal the clock' thing happened."

"Now look here."

"If you're an alien, its going to be all panic stations, what will we do with him? is he safe?" She straightened up truimphantly holding the clock and the key carefully separate in each hand. "I think you'd find that kind of a drag."

"Well yes probably. What was that you said about space and time?"

"The clock and the key? If you wind the clock with the key." Claudia stuck the key in the winder and twisted it a couple of times to demonstrate. "And then stop it... You need to hold onto me," she paused and nodded at him.

After a second he grabbed hold of her arm.

"So, now watch!" She flicked open the front and stuck a finger in the way of the second hand.

Claudia would have hardly noticed any change, if she hadn't been looking for it, but the silence of the night time observatory deepened perceptibly.

"Wow!" said the Doctor immediately. "You just stopped time!"

"You noticed? I thought I was going to have to point something out. Find a drop of rain that wasn't falling or something."

"I exist in a special relationship to time. That's amazing! Can I see?"

"Not sure I should hand this over."

"Please?"

Artie would kill her but Claudia felt good about this man. She trusted him. So she shrugged and handed him the clock, then watched as he stopped and started it a few times.

"That's cool! Don't you think this is cool? incredibly cool!"

"Yeah! It's cool. Now drop it in the bag and we can all go home." Claudia held out one of the neutralizer bags.

The Doctor instinctively shied back from it, clutching the clock to his chest. "What's in the bag?"

"Neutralizer OK. It'll neutralize the whatever it is that powers the artefact. Everyone will be safe until I get it back to the warehouse."

His eyes narrowed. "You're from the warehouse."

"You know about it?"

"I've run across it from time to time. So you are planning to steal the clock."

"I've got a replacement," Claudia hefted her rucksack.

"You have a fake."

"It's good enough. It's not like anyone ever uses the thing, thankfully."

The Doctor frowned and stared at the clock and the bag. Claudia had a sudden concern that he'd stop time and then make off with the artefact but instead he pulled out the key and held it out. 

"It's only a problem when reunited with the key."

"Yeah? so?"

The Doctor dropped the key in the bag and then stepped a back sharply, with a cry, as it sparked.

"So, neutralized. The warehouse can keep the key and this goes back in its rightful place."

Claudia looked at him then shrugged. "'K. Works for me I suppose."

The Doctor grinned and dashed back into the gallery to place the clock reverently back on its stand. As he did so several alarms went off.

"Oops! I forgot about the alarm system."

"Damn!" muttered Claudia. "I don't have authorisation in England."

"This way!" The Doctor grabbed her hand and began running back down the staircase.

"Where are we going?"

"I have transportation!"

"You have what? where?"

"Here!"

Claudia found herself bundled into a blue box and then gaped when she faced the interior.

"This in incredible!" she managed.

"Yes, I know, bigger on the inside than on the outside." The Doctor was dashing around a central column pulling levers and pushing buttons.

"Is it an artefact?"

"Well that is rather a matter of debate. It runs on artron energy which, if I'm not very mistaken and I very rarely am, powers most of the artefacts in the warehouse." The Doctor looked up at her and his face was suddenly deadly serious.

Claudia glanced around at the interior. It was breath-taking. "Well! It seems safe enough. I guess I don't have to neutralize it."

"It would be tricky to get into one of your bags."

"That too." Claudia grinned at him. "What does it do?"

"Time and Space. It can take you anywhere."

"What? Seriously?"

"Seriously? What do you say?"

"What do I say what?"

"What do you say about a quick spin around the galaxy and back in time for tea."

"I bet you say that to all the girls."

"Err... well... they all enjoy it."

Claudia rolled her eyes. "Time and Space right, so you can get me back to the Warehouse in time to deliver the key before Artie gives himself some kind of a heart attack because I've gone missing?"

"Definitely, I always get people back on time. Well, mostly anyway. Sometimes. It definitely happened once. Do you have a mother?"

"No, since you ask," Claudia said more sharply than she intended.

"The mothers are always the worst. Nope definitely get you back before anyone notices you're gone."

"This trip around the galaxy will it involve exciting adventures and madcap science."

"That's the general idea."

"In which case, you're on."


End file.
